Tabletop Teacher

It's 11th of November, and the 100 year Anniversary of the end of Word War 1. The tradition here in the UK is to wear poppies and lay wreathes of the flower on various memorials dotted around the country, as a way of paying respects to soldiers who gave their lives during both World Wars in particular and and solider who has lost their life in service in general. It's a sombre cultural event, and is usually about the tragedy of war and the importance of keeping peace. Paper poppy sales go on to fund veteran charities and such. Last year I "converted" two Games Workshop Models, stripping them of weapons in place of being flower holders. To this day they stand in the front of my classroom, holding their poppies up. It's important for those of us who push around plastic soldiers and entertain ourselves with stories of war and combat to remember that our table top fantasy is built on a foundation of utter catastrophe. These models are a reminder th...

I have a spare few minutes waiting for my Scarf catalogue to print out, and just popped on over to see how Orktober is going. I have to admit I was underwhelmed by the orkiness of the month until about a week ago. Now with Klan Kultures revealed and new trukks and gubbinz leaking all over the interwebz, I feel my WAAAAGGHHH!!! rising in a way only fandom marketing and advertising can do. Well done Games Workshop Ad' Ladz! What's caught my eye is the sudden disappearance of Boyz from the Games Workshop website . Even the Start Collecting Kit has vanished, and so I'm guessing some new kit is inbound. This would explain why the ork Kill Team box set has featured Burna Boys, instead of the standard Troops choice everyone else gets. The good side? Well, new models are always nice and the old kits were rather busy models for a horde army. Not a bad thing to have detail on a model, but for a  model that actually might die to a lasgun shot it was an awful...

First, things that keep me from blogging: DofE Expeditions Report Writing House Drama rehearsals School inspections during House Drama But the things that keep me blogging? "Reivers... they're like Space Marine ninjas." Jus' gonna sneak up on dis git 'ere... Ork snipers... We'z got da 'igh ground! Dat meanz our dakka 'urtz more! WAAAGGGHHH!!! Vicious fire fights Sniper rifles were meant for assault range... The inexorable approach of The Law... and Kau'yon ambushes. Hope you've got a permit for those pulse rifles, mate. And finally... the Light of the Emperor Cue the orchestral music Kill Team has been a fantastic thing for the school club, and I really hope to share all the stories falling out of it soon. Sorry for the lack of regular updates. Until next time. Thanks for reading. If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, a...

About a subtle as a brick to the face that title. It's been a mad week, with Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, new reporting systems and other events kicking off, hence the total lack of posts. I have been saving this for a while, at least until the Genestealer Cults investigation is complete. I'm unlikely to finish until next week though, so enjoy this small preview of my new "Space Wolf" Great Company colour scheme. Yes, this post and the piece I did on Magnus are two of the forms of suicide on Fenris. I do like how the base green came out, and unlike many similar guides didn't need anything apart from standard Citadel paints. A proper guide is incoming! Until next time! Hopefully! If I can avoid the Sons of Russ a few days longer... Thanks for reading. If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter , Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated. ...

With one gem amongst the other situational and niche Tactics, the Genestealer Cults are going to be more reliant on the general and Specialist tactics. With the School League ruling that only 5 Tactics per force are allowed, I can’t see these seeing much use. With that said, they do provide some interesting reactions to situations, and so have their place in less restrictive Matched, Open and Narrative play. General Tactics Tactic: Unnatural Senses Use when a model is declared as the target of a charge The model may fire Overwatch even if the model isn’t visible  The model counts as obscured Cost: 1CP We’re not starting off with a great one, being as amazingly niche as it is. The model being obscured only counts in terms of Injury rolls, Overwatch needed natural 6s to Hit in any case. In anything but the school’s league this is a nifty tactic to bring out as a surprise to the enemy. However, if you’re ever limited in the number of tactics you can bring feel free ...

It's been a long day (actually haven't finished yet... 8:30pm and still 3 contact hours to go), and I'm just about tired enough not to care about how embarrassed I am about this. I made a YouTube clip of a older blog article . I'm strongly considering switching to this instead of the written blog, but I appreciate I have a lot to learn about video making. I also love writing, and it would be a massive wrench to drop the written form. A happy medium between written blog and video content is probably what I'd strive for. And of course, the video content would just be the same as written. The same nerdy stuff and over thinking rules and list crafting. Well, all that is something of a pipe dream. Enjoy my dulcet tones. Or at least I'm sorry for my funny voice. Until  next time! Thanks for reading. If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter , Facebook or...

I'm officially on my second week of non-stop late nights at work, by which I mean I literally do not get out of the boarding house until 11pm after a 7am start. With the idea of a robot body having more and more appeal, we wrap up our analysis of the AdMech with some of my favourite models from Games Workshop: the Sicarians. Sicarians The Sicarian frame is not the sturdiest in the world, but hits hard and fast. It’s no tank, and it shouldn’t be fielded as such, more an aggressive and panic inducing model. The common attributes of the Sicarian models are as follows: Bionics: 6+ invulnerable save 2 Wounds Lightning quick 8-inch movement Strength 4 They are tougher and faster than your Skitarii units, and at first blush are geared for all out assault. Toughness 3 is not quite the detriment it was in older editions of 40K. It’s still relatively weak, but you’ll be caught by 2+ To Wound rolls less often in Kill Team than in 7th or older. Strength 4 alongside their...

This is half a thought I had about Magnus the Red being more of a Viking Primarch than Leman Russ. I never quite had time to research the idea, but I thought I'd share the half-finished idea with you all now for discussion. Why? Because it's blog post day, I still have 5 hours of school work to do and it's already 9pm. Enjoy the idea, and see if you can flesh it out a bit more than I have! Whilst everyone considers Leman Russ to be the quintessential Viking primarch due to his reputation fo heavy drinking and general combat demeanour (a fancy way of saying he likes to hit stuff with a sword), Magnus is actually a much better candidate to represent the Norse in 40K. You might be thinking that he much more clearly represents the Egyptians. Well, there's a difference between visual aesthetic and plot themes. Everything about Magnus hints at a far more Northerly inspiration than Ra or others in the Egyptian pantheon. In fact... he's Odin. Let...

Term has hit surprisingly hard this year, and it looks like I will working for three weeks straight without a day off again. I'm also on the late night shift for three quarters of that, so please forgive any disruption to the post schedule. As a scientitst and geek I should be more into the Adeptus Mechancus than I am. I like the aesthetics of most of the models, but then the fluff pulls me right out of actually purchasing models. I'm not a fan of religious dogma, no matter how many 1s or 0s make up the hymns. It grates against my teacher's ethics to have unthinking discipline, and I find the idea of electronically enforced servitude utterly repellent. But I really like the idea of Skitarii as more free thinking volunteers, out to better mankind's understanding of the universe by defending the engineers and architects who work for it. So I bend the fluff a little in my end to make it work for me. But let's talk about crunch instead. The Troops In dis...

Term has officially started, with all our boarders back this evening. The house is alive with the bumps and crashes of boys trashing their bed rooms. Great to be back in the wing of things! I will be continuing on with the analysi of the Adeptus Mechanicus in Kill Team, but I have a reader request to carry out first: Howdy, I am new to 40k and just staring out with my friends. I am interested in the Chaos Space Marines. I was wondering if you could recommend a good 500pt army that I could put together. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. PS. I was thinking of either Black or Alpha Legion. Matthew Winning First of all Matthew, have you and your friends tried Kill Team yet? It’s a cheaper and quicker way to get started! Chaos Space Marines, now known as the Heretic Astartes, are in somewhat of a poor position for beginners. The models are getting rather dated now, unless you’re going Death Guard or Thousand Sons, and their classic Troops choice is mostly out-performed ...

Adeptus Mechanicum are nicely balanced in Kill Team, coming in as quirky Jack-of-all trades. Whilst you might look at them as a shooting force they’ve got surprising punch in melee, and are just a little fragile compared to Space Marines. Their tactics reflect their all-around nature, so lets see what tricks we can pull from them. Canticles of the Omnissiah You can choose a Canticle at the start of each battle round, but you can only choose it once per battle. Alternatively roll for it, and it works even if the Canticle has been chosen before. Incantation of the Iron Soul: reroll failed Nerve tests. Litany of the Electromancer: enemy models within 1-inch of models in your kill team take 1 Mortal Wound on a d6 Chant of the Remorseless Fist: Re-roll Hit rolls of 1 in the Fight phase. Shroudpsalm: Targets of shooting attacks in cover gain an additional -1 To Hit. Invocation of Machine Might: +1 Strength Benediction of the Omnisiah: Re-roll Hit rolls of 1 in the shooting ph...

Summer's over, and so is my free time. Apologies for not having the latest Kill Team guide up yet, but I had 3 unexpected 2 hour meetings today. However, here's a grab bag of comments that should be highlighted. I try to respond to all commenters on the blog, ad if I don't get back to you it's usually because the comment is on an older post and gets held for approval. Hey. Regarding the vertical movement. I was just wandering, since I am quite a noob, what is an advantage of having a Reiver go to higher ground? He is then usually far away from everybody else with no help and most of enemies can shoot him (sometimes with -1). Hwo to use properly higher ground like scond floor of a building? Anonymous on  Kill Team Guide: Tips for the Psychic, Shooting and Melee Phases. Thanks for commenting! The big advantage is effectively ignoring walls, and changes in height. Whereas other models would need to use up their move value going up and down, the Reiver just ...

Primaris Marines do two things well; take a hit and be easy to collect . They might not be as flash as Tacticals or as unique as Scouts, but they'll be a strong anvil to throw at the enemy. And they do have their own tips and tricks too! In talking about the units in detail I run the risk of reproducing the  Core manual , which then skirts dangerously close to copy write infringement. As such I will try to include as many details as needs to be clear, but if you want more you will need to buy the book. What will be included is: Name of the unit Different models in that unit (maximum number in brackets) Wargear options (but keep in mind they can’t carry everything at once!) Abilities Specialisations Any other important pieces will be included in the analysis itself. Right, let’s get started. Intercessor Models: Intercessor, Intercessor Gunner (2), Intercessor Sergeant (1) Wargear: Bolt rifle, Bolt pistol, Frag and Krak grenades, auto-bolt rifle, Stalk...